Studying history without linguistic competences and reading competence?

Geschichtsstudium ohne Fremdsprachenkenntnisse und Lesekompetenz?

Students in the German state Brandenburg will soon be able to start studying history without foreign language skills – according to the will of politicians. Presumably, this policy aims to increase the number of students, under the rubric “equal opportunities”. Does this innovation really provide the same opportunity for everybody? Or does the policy rather amount to a barrier?

Internationalization without foreign language skills?

According to the new Student and Examination Regulations, dated 4th March 2013, foreign language skills are no longer compulsory but only recommended for the Bachelor’s degree in history. This recommendation has taken effect against the will of the University of Potsdam. Foreign language skills are not compulsory anymore even for students pursuing a (history) teaching degree for secondary schools.[1] Until recently, Potsdam University had followed the policy common at most German universities: language skills in Latin and in two other modern languages were compulsory or had to be acquired until the final examinations.[2] But how, one wonders, are students without language skills supposed to prepare for courses adequately or write (term) papers which require reading texts in foreign languages? Should they search the Internet for translations of source texts (in most cases almost certainly in vain) during courses using their smartphones, or perhaps use Google Translate to furnish distorted translations while their peers doing source-critical work on the foreign-language texts? Nowadays, students rarely attend the recommended courses voluntarily. In the past, these courses were fully accredited. The situation becomes even more problematic if one imagines a student having no clue of Latin, but being obliged to study and interpret Latin sources – which is everyday life when studying antiquity or the Middle Ages.
Internationalization is certainly most welcome. But how can a German student study abroad without at least a basic knowledge of foreign languages? History as school subject taught bilingually enjoys political support.[3] Teaching bilingual history classes requires the ability to read even difficult foreign language sources and literature and to prepare such materials for students. Crucially, this doesn’t fit the elimination of foreign language skills as a study requirement.

Soaring A-level marks, plummeting skills?

Maybe this is not actually a problem, because highschool graduates are achieving better and better marks. The percentage of graduates with an average of 1,0 (the highest possible average in Germany) increased by 40 percent between 2006 and 2012.[4] The frontrunner is Berlin, where the percentage of 1,0 graduates has more than quadrupled.[5] Hence, it could be expected that today’s university entrants are better prepared than previously. However, educational researchers refer to a discrepancy between the marks and actual performance. Among other factors, Elmar Tenorth refers to the “Level one” Study (2011), which correlates school-leaving certificates and literacy levels.[6] 21,4 percent of the group with a higher educational qualification had “deficient” reading and writing skills. Tenorth calls this a “masked illiteracy”: school certificates attest nonexistent skills. The current educational policy discussion about a one-year general studies course indicates that university entrants are generally not qualified to study.

A circulus vitiosus – a vicious circle!

History is and will remain a degree course involving a lot of reading – even if there is much talk of turns.[7] Lecturers are more and more confronted with students with a significant lack of the skills needed to write their (term) papers. Many students are dissatisfied if they are awarded a 3,0. That’s why some lecturers tend to give better marks to avoid time-consuming discussions about marks. This practice distorts actual performance levels among university students. In the long run, this could result in a vicious circle: less skilled teachers – more less skilled highschool graduates [8] – less skilled teachers, etc. One question remains: Do the measures described actually serve the quality of university education?

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